Everyday micropractices
Everyday Micropractices
How ritual and religious experience can be found in the mundane
By Josephine Mortrud
| SuperBowl snacks - dorm style |
Elizabeth Perez's book, Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions, explores how everyday practices can demonstrate profound religious and spiritual devotion. These "micropractices" are often overlooked by religious scholars as less important than elaborate rituals, but how we speak and eat plays an enormous role in how we think and interact with others, including the divine or supernatural. Perez writes,
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| Blueberry muffins for the 4th of July |
"Practitioners gradually learn to master these micropractices through intensely sensory apprenticeships to authoritative members of their communities. [...] Since micropractices inhere in the everyday routines of local institutions, they can become difficult, if not impossible, to discern as anything other than unremarkable background noise, or grunt work incidental to more serious ritual business taking place elsewhere" (Perez, 6)
After reading this text for class I took some time to reflect on what could be considered micropractices in my own life. I don't prepare much food while I am in school, but when I do it is usually for special celebrations. Preparing the food can even sometimes be more of the event than whatever the food is meant to celebrate.
Rolling cinnamon rolls at work
I love being in the kitchen by myself, with friends, and even recently with clients. Last semester while I was in the practicum for human service I was able to come into one of my agency's day-habilitation (day-hab) centers once a week as a volunteer. Often this looked like me leading a skills group, specifically a cooking class. My patience in the kitchen has grown tremendously in the time I have spent cooking with clients and I am much more go-with-the-flow than I have been before. Coming from a very difficult relationship with food myself being able to teach kitchen skills alongside health and wellness has been healing.
Food preparation is another way I am able to serve those around me even if it is not a practice I currently do the most often. Some micropractices I see in my rhythms now include driving, showering, napping, and wearing jewelry. These may not seem like religious practices but with a posture of perpetual adoration, many mundane actions can be holy.
Driving: I spend time in prayer on my drives to and from work centering myself on the many things I have to be grateful for, how I can best serve the individuals I see at work, and letting go of any stressors that may have come up during the day or evening. I also drive a long way to and from the church I attend with a friend. We have had our best conversations and grew the most as friends on these Sunday drives.
Showering: I also use showers as a time of grounding and recentering. Often I will forgo music so I can force myself to be in silence and just think or pray. I try and stay present while washing my hair being thankful for a God who is intentional and cares for the body. (Mt 30:10) (Lk 12:7)
Napping: Inside our fellowship and the larger InterVarsity area we joke a lot about "holy naps". When we go on retreats and other fun events we are encuraged to take the time to rest that we need and not feel pressured to join in activities or sessions that we may not feel up to. Getting to steal a few minutes of rest tuding a stressfull time in the semester always feels like a gift straight from Heavan.
Wearing jewelry: Since October I have worn the same bracelet almost every day. I made it at a craft night InterVarsity hosted and it references a blessing one of my staff says over me every time we see each other. It has become incredibly meaningful to me. Every time I put it on I feel loved, encouraged, and protected.
Each of the micropracticies in my own life are particularly sensorial. I see and feel the road while driving, I see hear and feel my bracelet, I smell the scent of my shampoo, and possibly connect to the sixth sense while dreaming. Micropractices truly make up a remarkable background noise to the life of practitioners. Each of these practices brings me back into my body as well as focuses my mind on "things above". The body and the supernatural should not be thought of as antithetical when they are often so complimentary.
Pérez, Elizabeth. Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions. NYU Press, 2016. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18040b8. Accessed 28 Apr. 2025.
Free use images found at pexels.com
After reading this text for class I took some time to reflect on what could be considered micropractices in my own life. I don't prepare much food while I am in school, but when I do it is usually for special celebrations. Preparing the food can even sometimes be more of the event than whatever the food is meant to celebrate.
| Rolling cinnamon rolls at work |
Food preparation is another way I am able to serve those around me even if it is not a practice I currently do the most often. Some micropractices I see in my rhythms now include driving, showering, napping, and wearing jewelry. These may not seem like religious practices but with a posture of perpetual adoration, many mundane actions can be holy.
Driving: I spend time in prayer on my drives to and from work centering myself on the many things I have to be grateful for, how I can best serve the individuals I see at work, and letting go of any stressors that may have come up during the day or evening. I also drive a long way to and from the church I attend with a friend. We have had our best conversations and grew the most as friends on these Sunday drives.
Showering: I also use showers as a time of grounding and recentering. Often I will forgo music so I can force myself to be in silence and just think or pray. I try and stay present while washing my hair being thankful for a God who is intentional and cares for the body. (Mt 30:10) (Lk 12:7)
Napping: Inside our fellowship and the larger InterVarsity area we joke a lot about "holy naps". When we go on retreats and other fun events we are encuraged to take the time to rest that we need and not feel pressured to join in activities or sessions that we may not feel up to. Getting to steal a few minutes of rest tuding a stressfull time in the semester always feels like a gift straight from Heavan.
Wearing jewelry: Since October I have worn the same bracelet almost every day. I made it at a craft night InterVarsity hosted and it references a blessing one of my staff says over me every time we see each other. It has become incredibly meaningful to me. Every time I put it on I feel loved, encouraged, and protected.
Each of the micropracticies in my own life are particularly sensorial. I see and feel the road while driving, I see hear and feel my bracelet, I smell the scent of my shampoo, and possibly connect to the sixth sense while dreaming. Micropractices truly make up a remarkable background noise to the life of practitioners. Each of these practices brings me back into my body as well as focuses my mind on "things above". The body and the supernatural should not be thought of as antithetical when they are often so complimentary.
Pérez, Elizabeth. Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions. NYU Press, 2016. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18040b8. Accessed 28 Apr. 2025.
Free use images found at pexels.com
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